Now that we have ruined Thanksgiving.....

But don't get offended.
This affects most...but certainly not all...of you.
People in this country (America) are absolutely programmed.
They make choices by what has been told to them, not on their own.
They listen closely to the television and it dictates how they act.
Consumerism, materialism....it's one in the same.

It's a choice that a person makes.
To let money consume their lives or not.
To let money rule their lives, more like it...

Every last one of you make that choice!
If you give in to all the "traditions" of these holidays, you made the money choice.
If you allow yourself to let shopping rule over actual quality family time...
The list goes on.

Because before these holidays were even invented...there was no "money" involved.
By that, I mean little marketing towards youth, or jewelry, or consumerism.
We may have exchangsd gifts, but without all the glorified spending habits.
There were no lines at the store to get the best deal for a spoiled child (or adult

).
Basically no television programming to dictate your lives.
When you participate in the consumerism of these holidays...
You are allowing a television to control you.

These holidays were never meant to be about money.
Or shopping for that matter.
Or mass-panicked, frenzied, do-anything-for-a-deal, swarthes of people.
But because our lust for material things is ever increasing, and fed by television, we won't learn.

Yep, long lines of traffic, people waiting to get in and once they do they start screaming at each other while violence breaks out - you are
talking about football, right?
I think we should get rid of both black friday and all sporting events on Thanksgiving day so people can spend time with their families and celebrate
the true meaning of the holiday as proposed by Abraham Lincoln.
It was started during the Civil War as an excuse to focus on the good in life during the horrors of war which by 1864 the slaughter had reached
unimaginable heights. Read about Spotsylvania or Cold Harbor or The Crater if you want to know what Hell is like.
Maybe take a day off from hunting as well - Thanksgiving should be about peace and brotherhood and counting the blessings that we all have.
Me? I'm just glad to have my parents alive for one more year.

ETA - I goofed. Lincoln made Thanksgiving a holiday in 1863 after the North had won Gettysburg, not 1864. (Had Meade not won the battle I doubt we
would even have this holiday)

Originally posted by charlyv
I think we have finally managed to ruin another holiday in the U.S., a holiday that is supposed to instill reflection in our lives and to give thanks
for just being able to be here.

The culprit is "Black Friday". The past years it started out fairly simple, stores would discount items and be open until late in the day after
Thanksgiving and it marked the start of the Christmas shopping season ( A holiday we destroyed many years ago due to mass commercialism).

This last "Black Friday" was the blackest... and really shows how we have managed to destroy the true nature of this holiday in the selfish
interests that large department stores and shopping plaza's have been able to brainwash us into a compulsive buying spree, with total disregard for
the peace and tranquility this holiday is supposed to represent.

Most have made "Black Friday" start on Thanksgiving day. Big chains like Best Buy come up with some ridiculously cheap prices for high end gadgets
(TV, Hand-Helds,etc) that they only have a small quantity of. Toy's R Us virtually giving away some of this years most sought after toys, again,
only a few of them. These are just a few examples of many of the large stores participating in this.... You have to be there when Black Friday
starts.... 12:00:01 AM...

They have people camping out in the parking lots on Thanksgiving day so they will have a chance at purchasing something that goes on sale at Midnight.
The result is lines of people in the malls in the afternoon of Thanksgiving, jockeying and pushing for a favorable position. It is sick.

Not only does this destroy what should be a more normal relaxing day, but it has an impact on the communities these stores are in. The traffic, police
in the streets directing people in and out of malls, Aggravated motorists , some just trying to get across town to visit relatives, everyone honking
at everyone else....

I wonder how many missed their family sit-down to be in those lines.... Some people were eating in the line from bags...
Again, Thanksgiving destroyed. Congratulations to the commercial interests that were able to pull it off.

Does anyone think I am off-base with this analysis? or was it just inevitable anyway....

I think you hit the nail right on the head with this one. I have never understood why people would rather be out in the cold than in their beds. You
will never catch me doing this, as I think this is just ridiculous. I was telling my husband how security guards were being trampled, and how people
go insane over materialism. My husband and I think it is pretty sad how people want things that don't matter all the time.

You hit the nail on the head. I hate holidays because of the commercialism and corporatism that has taken them over. I was just telling my wife this
the other day. Black Friday is a sad, sad day where the true nature of a lot of Americans shows through... and you wonder why we are where we are as
a nation. I personally witnessed a fist fight in the middle of an unruly mob at Wal-Mart over some bath towels. Yes, sadly you read that right....
BATH TOWELS. The only reason I was there was because my Sister in law wanted to go shopping for her daughter and I went just in case she got caught
up in the craziness. I wouldn't have believed it if I hadn't seen it for myself.

Do allow me to share this piece I wrote and posted on another thread, and ruin the Thanksgiving day further for those heartless others and without a
conscience:-

"Take a good look at the shoppers. The world had rallied and condemn those shoppers with their atittitude. Others laughed at them.

I only weep for them. I have no fear for being associated with them. They are US. They are the 99%. SEE what the 1% had done to our fellow humans,
driving them back into the jungles with such behaviour.

We were once civilised humans, with jobs and a future to look forward to. We enjoy the holidays and time for families. We love Christmas as adults and
kids, a time of giving and receiving, rekindling the bonds of families and relationships with reunions by those whom went to far flung regions to work
and prosper.

How times had changed! Today, we have no jobs, or jobs that hardly pays enough, and working worse than slaves while the rich grows obscenely rich, to
the point that we, the People, poor as we are, have to bail them out for the mistakes they make, and yet they have no remorse or conscience, but to
enrich themselves further.

Yet, many of us had still not given up hope, nor the traditions of thanksgiving and the spirit of Christmas.

Poor as we are, we just hope and pray for that one day when the corporations would lower their prices, so that we can afford to buy, with the meagre
that we saved so sacrificially, to give something better to our loved ones for Christmas, not even for ourselves, and driven to the point whereby we
forgotten that the spirit of Christmas is love and giving for all, by forcing our desperate needs upon others unrelated to us.....

Go ahead and laugh, I say to the 1%. This is your handiwork. Very soon, even that little spark of civilised humanity will be gone as we regress
further back to the jungles. What that happens, peaceful means will come to an end. Guillotines will be rolled out into city squares, pitchfork and
knives sharpened, ....then let's see who will be laughing.

I LOL'ed at the idea of Black Friday. No, really: It is nothing more than an artificial date to instill a massive Reroute of your money to their
pockets.

Here in Germany we had some similar events, called "Winterschlussverkauf" = Sellout for winter clothes and utilities like snowshovels, sleighs, etc.
and "Sommerschlussverkauf" = similar, only with sommer clothes.

They dropped these fixed dates some years ago and MAN am I relieved - because inavitably I ran into one of these events whenever I just wanted to buy
some stuff. And you know how ugly these events can be - we just saw/heard about it.

What is it? You WANNA buy this stuff even if you know that there will be no more of it in the store when you are finally entering the store because
you came 15 minutes to midnight and hoped to be the first in line? When in reality all you could see was the store at the far end of the horizon,
blocked by a mob of fanatical shoppers?

Come on. You want a huge TV, save for it or wait till its cheap enough. No need for this terror and hysteria, really.

Thank you for all who responded. I respect everyone's views, but think we have a consensus that ratifies my belief that we should value the intended
tranquility of Thanksgiving and move back a bit so that stress takes a lesser toll on our already hectic lives.

The world is changing , I know, but we, as consumers, have the power to protect ourselves and venues like ATS will certainly be the way that we let
the PTB know where we stand. Again, thanks for the support.

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